Although the world has seen great advances in science, medicine, political freedom, and individual freedoms over the last two hundred years, there also has been a sharp decrease in moral values and ethical values. This decrease in values is seen throughout the world in all walks of life, in all professions, in all genders, and in all ages. This decrease in moral values and moral judgment started in the 1960's and has accelerated when the youths of this world looked cynically at double standards. They viewed corrupt practices, or dictators, politicians, and business leaders, and the lack of enforcement of laws, especially drug laws, against celebrities, stars, and politicians. They have been taught that there is a double standard with respect to morals and ethics, one standard is employed for business and political leaders, the wealthy, celebrities, and politicians, and a second standard for the average citizen. The decline of moral standards and values is happening throughout society and throughout the world and is reflected in student cheating, white-collar crimes, tax evasion, felonious acts, terrorism, genocide, and the like.
There was a time in the not too distant past when virtually anywhere in the world, a person could leave their home without locking it up, without fear or concern that someone would enter the home without permission. In the past, people had more respect for another person's life and limbs, and property. This is clearly not the case today. In the first quarter of 2005, a young girl in the State of Florida, in the United States, was abducted from her home at night and brutally sexually assaulted and suffocated death. It was her family's policy to leave the house unlocked at night. Fortunately, most criminal acts involving entry into a home or building do not involve such brutal criminal acts. Most homes are entered for the primary purpose of theft.
Professional thievery rings exist throughout the world. One of the standard procedures of such rings is to first case the house or building to determine if it contains possessions worth stealing and then making an inventory of what is worth stealing. The rings keep catalogues of the contents of selected homes, normally the homes of the wealthy, and to a lesser extent, the contents of buildings or office or professional suites in a building. These theft rings frequently operate on a supply and demand system. An intermediary between a noncriminal purchaser and a thievery ring receives an order for a special work of art, jewelry, a selection of furs, a computer system, and the like. Frequently, the homes of the wealthy are surveilled when the home is opened for an architectural or artistic tour. Homes, buildings, suites, are surveilled when the home, building, or suite is opened up for lease or sale, or services.
Besides the elaborate thievery rings, there is also a theft of opportunity. An individual or group goes through a home that is open for sale or lease, one or members of the group see something they like, the other member[s] of the group distract the agent escorting them through the home while one member of the group secrets the desired article into their clothing or a large handbag, or the like. The group leaves the home with the purloined article[s].
Many large buildings have elaborate security systems, including numerous cameras to photograph people entering and egressing the building from many different directions, optical or electronic card scanners, keypad code entry devices, fingerprint identification devices, etc., and maintain a record of comings and goings for a predetermined period, such as a month or two months, or the like. Many homes of the very wealthy also have very elaborate security systems. However, even elaborate security systems do not necessarily have identification systems. Most buildings and most offices and suites and the homes of the great majority of people do not have such elaborate security systems.
There is a need to have an identification station which is a standalone mobile station which can be utilized to keep a record of the identification of people and their comings and goings of people into a suite, into a building, and/or into a home on a regular basis or for a special occasion, such as a large party, showings by real estate agents for sale or lease of the structure, art and architectural tours, and the like. What is needed is a system and station where a permanent or temporary record of the identity of people entering and leaving the structure can be made, such as a photographic record, a record of their identification, and a voice record, or the like. The records or recordings are maintained in the mobile station and/or at a remote location via hardwire, wireless, and/or satellite.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an identification system and station. It is a known fact that when the identification of a person is recorded, they are far less likely to commit a criminal act at that location because they recognize that an identification record would give the authorities a lead to them if any criminal act was committed at or on the location.
In many structures, such as corporate headquarters, corporate structures, government structures, and the like, the comings and goings of people into the structure are monitored and controlled by a receptionist, guard, or the like. This is cost effective for a large building or for a large well-funded organization. However, for most structures, this would be an outrageous cost that could not be justified. Accordingly, there is a need to have an identification station which would control entry into and, in certain situations, exit out of a structure. The present invention is a system that can be communicated with by a person[s] to request entry and/or exiting out of a structure which would include communication of identification data to the system, which upon verification of the identification data, would permit entry into the structure or exiting the structure by unlocking the entry door or exit door.